By ABHAY KUMAR / Sabrang
In a recent interview with NDTV, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that he would not “seek Muslim votes”. His statement not only contradicts the stated policy of the national BJP but also violates the letter and spirit of the Constitution. His remark also goes against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s reach out to the backward Muslim community, better known as Pasmanda Muslims.
Sarma, who joined the BJP in 2015 from the Congress, claimed during the interview that he did not believe in “vote bank” politics. He alleged his farmer party for playing the Muslim card. As he put it, “Right now, I don’t want Muslim votes. All problems happen because of vote bank politics. I visited a Muslim area once a month, attend their events and meet people, but I don’t link politics with development. I want Muslims to realize their relationship with the Congress is all about votes”.
It is not correct to say that Congress alone indulges in vote bank politics and Sarma and his party BJP are ignorant about it.
Remember that his association with Congress has been decades-long. He was elected to the state assembly for three consecutive terms on the Congress ticket. If Congress had been neck-deep in the vote bank politics, why did he not raise the issue earlier? Or does he now want us to believe that as soon as he left the Congress, it started “appeasing” Muslims and “acting against Hindus”?
Soon after joining the BJP, Biswa became a virulent critic of the Congress. He often gives statements against the Congress when PM Modi or the BJP government is questioned by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. He is notorious for giving highly indecent and personal remarks against the Nehru-Gandhi family and other opposition leaders including Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
Sarma, however, does not want us to remember the past when the BJP was his bitter critic. When he was in the Congress party, the BJP published a booklet (July 21, 2015), alleging that Sarma — as the minister in charge of the Guwahati Development Department (GDD) under the Congress regimes — was a “key suspect” in the scam. But the narrative dramatically changed soon after he switched sides.
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